Does anybody *not* like the Atomic CLR?

GreatGreen said:
I have two CLRs, they're fantastic speakers. They're exceptionally clear and flat, and sound just as good at night time ultra quiet volumes as they do at live volume, just like any great monitor should.

Once I called Atomic to ask a question or two and ended up speaking with Tom King at length about speakers in general, guitar tone, etc. The guy was super nice and personable, and I had a great time talking shop with him.

Absolutely zero complaints from me. Really top notch company.
Click to expand...
Really glad you like and have had a great experience with Tom. I found his service less than desirable. He was hard to get ahold of and I was not confident of the longevity of his product.
 
EricGlass said:
Thanks but Pinco Tech is in the USA and quoted a price in USD. You linked a site in England that says "Non-EU country: goods are subject to customs duty and tax" nor does that include Value-Added-Tax (VAT) nor does that site have any in stock or say when they will.
Click to expand...
I am in the USA. Thomann will ship to the US.
 
EricGlass said:
Thanks but Pinco Tech is in the USA and quoted a price in USD. You linked a site in England that says "Non-EU country: goods are subject to customs duty and tax" nor does that include Value-Added-Tax (VAT) nor does that site have any in stock or say when they will.
Click to expand...
I bought them on Reverb.com
I believe they’re made in the UK, and available worldwide.
 
EricGlass said:
Sure would like to see exactly where you are seeing them @ that price. Reverb has them @ almost double that as well as others.
Click to expand...
I just looked up my purchases. They were $449, $472 w tax each, free shipping, as seen in my screenshot below. Bought them (new) in October, 2019

For some reason, The price seems to be jumping. I see prices like $672. Glad I got them when I did
 

Attachments

  • 6FEFD3FE-9A1C-476F-8D86-966672AC6836.jpeg
    6FEFD3FE-9A1C-476F-8D86-966672AC6836.jpeg
    343.8 KB · Views: 32
I had a CLR for a VERY short time. When I was just playing in my house alone it was awesome. But once I used it in a full band setting, it was AWFUL. I don't know why, every review I read about it said it was really good, but it always seemed to make my presets sound very VERY scooped in the mids. To be fair, this was only a month or so after I got my Axe FX, so my presets were NOT great, but it always sounded so sterile and scooped to me, which made me feel self conscious about my tone, and made the one show I used it at a disaster.

Side story here. I used my CLR with my Fractal at one show, at the Guthrie Green here in Tulsa, OK (outdoor gig). I usually used an Orange Thunderverb half stack, and we'd played this venue before multiple times, and never had an issue. Anyways, I show up with my band to load out and set up on the stage, and I set up everything and tell the sound guy that he can either run direct to FOH from the AxeFX or from the CLR, thinking this would be a sound guys dream to have full control over my levels in the PA without worrying about stage volume. BUT! This guy INSISTS he must mic the CLR to get "The cab tone". I argued with him for about 10 minutes about this,, explaining that it'd be like putting a mic on any other wedge monitor and that it's FRFR, and he never budged, so I finally caved and just gave up hope for my tone that day. He mic'd my CLR with an SM57 and I've never had a more horrendous tone. DEFINITELY not the CLR's fault, but it turned me off of ever using the Axe FX live again for a LOOONG time.
 
Fuzzy Pinetree said:
Side story here. I used my CLR with my Fractal at one show, at the Guthrie Green here in Tulsa, OK (outdoor gig). I usually used an Orange Thunderverb half stack, and we'd played this venue before multiple times, and never had an issue. Anyways, I show up with my band to load out and set up on the stage, and I set up everything and tell the sound guy that he can either run direct to FOH from the AxeFX or from the CLR, thinking this would be a sound guys dream to have full control over my levels in the PA without worrying about stage volume. BUT! This guy INSISTS he must mic the CLR to get "The cab tone". I argued with him for about 10 minutes about this,, explaining that it'd be like putting a mic on any other wedge monitor and that it's FRFR, and he never budged, so I finally caved and just gave up hope for my tone that day. He mic'd my CLR with an SM57 and I've never had a more horrendous tone. DEFINITELY not the CLR's fault, but it turned me off of ever using the Axe FX live again for a LOOONG time.
Click to expand...

It sounds to me like the sound guy was a complete idiot.
 
Fuzzy Pinetree said:
I had a CLR for a VERY short time. When I was just playing in my house alone it was awesome. But once I used it in a full band setting, it was AWFUL. I don't know why, every review I read about it said it was really good, but it always seemed to make my presets sound very VERY scooped in the mids. To be fair, this was only a month or so after I got my Axe FX, so my presets were NOT great, but it always sounded so sterile and scooped to me, which made me feel self conscious about my tone, and made the one show I used it at a disaster.
Click to expand...
That's a classic symptom of dialing in your tones at home with no backing tracks. At the gig, you'll always sound scooped and sterile, because you dialed it in that way. That's what sounded good soloed at home.

The answer: more mids! :)
 
Last edited:
Rex said:
That's a classic symptom of dialing in your tones at home with no backing tracks. At the gig, you'll always sound scooped and sterile, because you dialed it in that way. That's what sounded good soloed at home.

The answer: more mids! :)
Click to expand...
Yes. And dial in your sounds at gig volume. Not mean what you think is loud at home, but at actual gig volume.

Also, next time hand the clueless sound guy an XLR to your “mic’d cab” and tell him to stick it.
 
Some other thoughts..

I don't have CLR, they were backordered for all eternity when I was looking to pick them up. I ended up picking up a Matrix GT1000fx and a pair of passive XiTone wedges. They sound fantastic. But I've ended up with multiple options now that I alternate between depending on the situation.

1) I actually just use in-ear monitors during most practices, and my other bandmates use headphones. I have the drums mic'ed and the bass direct so everything just sounds CLEAR!! Plus, with the small space we play in none of us are losing our hearing!!

2) When practicing alone I use my Yamaha HS8 studio monitors - they are the absolute BEST for playing through and I don't need to blow my eardrums when practicing alone!

3) When I want that in room sound, I often use the Matrix into my passive XiTone wedges. They sound great, and I'm sure similar to the CLR but of course there will be differences. But you need to really get used to the EQ. When I set up my presets at first I had WAY too much high end. I've learned over time how to set up my presets better... but I'm sure I still have lots of room for improvement.

4) I also have a Mesa 2x12 horizontal rectifier cabinet that I wanted to experiment with using the Matrix GT1000... but it only comes with a mono input. Since I run my primary presets as a stereo blend of the Friedman HBE and the Mesa IIC+ I was really lacking that blended tone. So I had Mesa ship me a stereo jack-plate that I installed into my cabinet. With the Matrix GT1000 running stereo into my Mesa 2x12 in stereo It sounds a lot more like that amp in the room sound that a lot of people feel is missing. It's big sounding! And for my primary preset next to no EQ was required.

My advice, experiment and experiment some more. Try different environments as well. We're all constantly learning and improving and it can take some time.

Just don’t get stuck in the rabbit hole of tweaking though, find something that works... and play guitar! 😉

Cheers.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom